Chase Bank replacing tellers with more ATMs in Arizona

By Bob McClay | April 21, 2015 at 6:07 amUPDATED: April 21, 2015 at 6:07 am

Some Arizonans may soon notice a change in their banking interactions.

The drive-ups at some of the Chase Bank branches in Arizona will soon have more ATMs.

“Most of our drive-ups will have what we call a deposit friendly ATM,” said Ben Garcia, Senior Market Manager for Chase in Arizona. “It’s an ATM that you can make, deposits, withdrawals, payments and transfers without filling out a deposit ticket.”

It’s all part of a pilot project that will be tested at up to 20 percent of the Chase Bank branches in the Phoenix area. Some of the branches will add an additional one or two drive-up ATMs to the ones that are already in place.

Garcia says the project began at some branches a few months ago, and customers, so far, appear to be liking the machines.

The branches involved in the project will no longer have a human staffing the drive-up window; those tellers will be moved to other areas to help customers inside the bank.

Garcia does not know how much money the move will save Chase Bank, but he insists that no tellers will be laid off as a result of the change.

“This is not coming at the cost of jobs, and we’re not laying people off,” Garcia said. “What we’re simply going to do is probably hire less people in our branches.”

Garcia said that the bank will monitor customer comments. “If they really prefer seeing a person or talking to a live body, we will make some decisions based on that feedback,” he said.

The bank will use customer response to evaluate whether to expand the changes to other banks.